Our Valley Wanderers plan for today was to hike the trails up at Skeetawk maybe up to Government Peak. But when we arrived at Skeetawk, we were greeted by rain and a solid overcast and fog. Several of the group just said farewell, but Virginia, Jane, Erin and I decided to find an alternate hike in better weather. We met again at Matanuska Lake and started hiking the Long Lake Loop. Virginia led us down the tiny trail that warns us to keep out, caretaker's residence. I never dared to violate that sign. But she knew it was totally abandoned. So, we visited the boarded-up house. Then we followed the trail, which turned out to be a continuation of the Old Cat Trail. I mentioned that I had hiked that trail to High Ridge Lake before. So suddenly we all decided to follow it all the way to High Ridge and Biard Lakes. I had never realized that trail extended to that boarded-up cabin. It was very pleasant conditions, just cloudy but with no rain or wind. The trail gets very steep in spots and also quite narrow. Virginia had been to the lakes before but not from that direction. I had used that route in the past so ended up being sort of the leader. There is very little traffic on that trail, and we had it completely to ourselves. I pointed out the intersection that leads to the Crevasse Moraine trailhead, where I had first hiked to the lakes. Soon after, we passed the cute little blue chair that has been sitting there overlooking Biard Lake long enough to appear on the Gaia iPhone app map! Of course, we all took turns sitting in the chair. Rather than retrace our stops on the Old Cat Trail, we turned off the loop and took the Rooty Trail and joined the Long Lake Connector. This eventually led us back to the Matanuska Lake trail system and crossed the hay fields back to our cars at Matanuska Lake. It was a delightful 9-mile hike in lovely weather. Bella enjoyed mostly leading us the whole way.
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